Peanut Butter 3 Ways

Note to self: NEVER buy canned chili again. Even if it's vegetarian, organic AND Trader Joe's brand. If nothing else, I have reiterated the fact that food is better when left to the home cook and not from a can. Unfortunately, my chili-cheese hot dog was collateral damage in this instance.

Well now that I've gotten that out of the way.....

I love peanut butter, which I have possibly mentioned before, thus the name of the blog. So it's no shocker that I'd attempt to make peanut butter. Three different peanut butters at that. 

It is so easy to turn these:

Into this:

But first, breakfast. The BEST bowl of oatmeal has mashed banana mixed in while its cooking, splash of vanilla at the end and any random assortment of toppings. Today it was granola and toasted coconut. 

The star of the peanut butter today is banana. There aren't many combinations I like more than banana + peanut butter. Oh and if there's chocolate in the mix too, I'm soooo down.  

Peanut butter 3 ways

((makes ~1.5 cups))

1/16 ounce bag of unsalted unroasted peanuts

1.5 T turbinado sugar

1/4 t salt

1/2 t vanilla extract

1/70 g bag of freeze dried bananas (I used Trader Joe's)

1.5 T unsweetened cocoa powder

1. Roast peanuts on a sheet tray in a 350 F oven for about 10 minutes. Keep a close eye on them because they burn quick.

2. Transfer 1/3 of the peanuts and a pinch of salt to your food processor* and turn it on until the peanut butter becomes drippy. You may need to stop and scrape the sides and bottom once or twice. This takes about 5 minutes.

3. Transfer your plain peanut butter to a jar.

4. Transfer the remaining 2/3 of the peanuts, sugar**, salt, vanilla and bananas to the food processor and buzz again until smooth. 

5. Pour half of this banana peanut butter into a jar. 

6. To the remaining peanut butter, add cocoa powder and pulse until combined. 

7. Pour this chocolate banana peanut butter into a jar. 

I store them all in the refrigerator to prevent the oil from separating.  

*I now use a Cuisinart 7-cup food processor and it works perfectly. Before I was using a Kitchen Aid 3- cup food processor and it just never worked right. 

**You may not need to add this sugar, as the bananas are sweet on their own. Of course though I didn't think of this until after it had been added. The crystals of turbinado sugar are rather large and if it's not added to the peanut butter at the beginning of the process, the crystals wont melt and you'll have a grainy texture. So, I wouldn't suggest adding the turbinado sugar at the end, only at the beginning. 

NOTE: substituting honey, agave, brown rice syrup, etc. will change the texture too because it will bind up the peanut butter and prevent it from becoming drippy. 

Peanuts + salt. 

 Peanuts + banana.

Peanuts + banana + chocolate. 

So dead tired. One day, I'll come home from work and just veg out on my couch instead of finding a zillion things to do around the house. 

-S

Week one: no cooking

I can do nothing in silence. Well, with the exception of reading and writing, writing blog posts to be exact. Flux Pavillion may not be the most relaxing music in the late hours of a Friday night, but it still seems appropriate, but then again, when does it not?? To me anyway. 

As I said earlier, I will not be creating any recipes or cooking for the next week. BUT I have been microwaving instant oatmeal this week for breakfast, and this would indeed constitute as cooking. After all, the definition of cooking is the application of heat to change the food's chemistry. I'm no expert, but I did study food in college and now talk about food or look at food all day for a living. ;)

This week could not have started off better, as you can see below. This little bakery in DC is called Sticky Fingers. They're a vegan bakery and small deli-type joint. The texture of these cupcakes were unbelievable. And the flavor. OMG. As I'm sure it's evident, I like peanut butter. Below is a chocolate fudge cupcake with peanut butter frosting. The cake was so moist (Danielle would kill me) and the texture was spot on. The frosting?? To die. Before devouring it, I had a large bowl of veggie chili but had to first take a finger full of frosting, as illustrated below. My friend got the Johnny Cashew,  a chocolate cupcake with cashews! Not a combination we'd ever heard of but she said it was fantastic! They also put on a drizzle caramel sauce. YUM. 

Our hotel offers unlimited, free drinks for two hours each night. Enough said. Friends thought it'd be funny to bring me back a glass of wine each time they re-filled their drink regardless of whether I had finished mine already or not. Thus why there are 3 glasses pictured, not just one. Not to worry, I was always raised to never, ever let anything go to waste. Even if this stuff tasted awful. We ate dinner at a pizza restaurant that night and I open the menu to see "guilt-free pizza", a vegetable pizza without cheese. First thought was, is this a joke?? If you're going to have pizza, have pizza. Am I right!?!?! So uh, guess what I ordered? guilt-free pizza. It (in)sufficiently met my expectations and left me unsatisfied. I will completely take the blame here and vow to never eat a guilt-free pizza ever, ever again. 

For dinner last night we went to this local chain called Clyde's. The atmosphere and decor was fairly casual and their menu looked fantastic. I took a picture of my dish, but it just looked like a mass of food and didn't do it justice. (Not like any of my pictures are very good, but I'm gonna get better!) I had a maple roasted acorn squash that was stuffed with sauteed spinach, spaghetti squash strings, and dried cranberries. So. Good. 

Texture is everything. I've been so into texture lately. My only morning fare is oatmeal. Maybe I'll move on from this phase sometime in the future, but I sure hope not! It is so adaptable and the combinations are endless. I have been chowing on this TJ's microwaveable oatmeal all week. Not what I'd typically go for because I like to cook it stove-top, but not a bad alternative for an extended hotel stay. Oatmeal has a chewy, creamy texture, so I have to off-set that with crunchy granola and it's perfect. With a glob of melty peanut butter though, of course!

Our hotel is only two blocks from a Whole Foods. YES. The closest one to home is over an hour away so the fact that there's one so close to me this week has already been a problem. We spent over two hours in there just tonight. Class got out early so when I came back to the hotel I napped. What an amazing feeling and yet so foreign. I literally did not go a day in college without a nap and now since I'm a responsible adult with a real job, there's no time for that. TWO hour nap today could not have been better. Sleeping makes me hungry. Scratch that, I'm always hungry, or at least I always want to eat. Enter: two hour trip to WF. We each filled up plates of their endless cold and hot bars and went to town. (See spread of food below). The sushi was great. I don't care that my job has taught me that sushi can be very dangerous and make me very sick. I choose to ignore the facts and scarf it down anyway. 

After dinner we literally walked through WF for no less than an hour and a half. Yes, I like to walk around grocery stores and read food labels in my spare time. Maybe I also do this for a living  and should find another hobby, but again, I choose not to. We probably spent the most time deciding which chocolate bar to try--20 minutes maybe. If you've seen how extensive the chocolate section is you'd understand, or if you're an indecisive female you would understand, too. I finally decided on pear almond dark chocolate. Not a combination I would have put together, but I trusted WF. Am I glad I trusted WF?? UH, yes, duh. The pear flavor is so natural tasting and the almonds are perfectly crunchy. Again, texture.

I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow. No more of this 5:30 am. No more of this 1 hour commute to work. Is this what it's like to live in city?!?!?! If so, I can still dig it. 

-S